AI Mattress Goes Viral! Selling 500 Million in a Year, Sequoia China Invests – What's Its Secret?
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Another consumer AI hardware product has gone viral.
This time, it's not smart glasses, earphones, or fitness bands, but a seemingly niche category—mattresses.
On August 19, sleep health company Eight Sleep announced the completion of a $100 million funding round. The investor lineup is impressive, including Sequoia China, Valor Equity Partners, Atreides, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and even F1 Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
This is one of the few $100 million+ funding rounds in the consumer AI hardware sector since 2025. The reason Eight Sleep has caught investors' attention is somewhat similar to last year's hit, the smart ring Oura.
Initially, it was just a smart mattress focused on cooling. But with AI and vast sleep data, it not only optimizes your sleep routine but also silently monitors your health at night.
This taps into one of the hottest trends in the U.S. in recent years: sleep health.
According to the U.S. CDC, over one-third of adults regularly lack sufficient sleep. The adoption of sleep technology is also rising rapidly—in 2022, 37% of Americans used sleep trackers, spending an average of $147 on related devices and $40 on sleep apps.
In 2024 alone, Eight Sleep's core product line generated $75 million (approximately 540 million RMB) in online sales.
Whether it's Eight Sleep or the earlier Oura, they both offer a revelation:
In the AI era, hardware is no longer a one-time purchase but a service gateway that can continuously upgrade and deliver value.
01 No Chat, Just Temperature Control: AI Hardware Earns 500 Million a Year
In the U.S., getting a good night's sleep isn't easy.
Statistics show that one-third of American adults suffer from chronic sleep deprivation, and 42% wake up at least once a week due to overheating.
This frequent overheating is largely due to American bedding culture. While East Asians prefer lightweight, breathable natural materials, Americans love thick memory foam + sealed-down comforters. The result? In summer, lying down feels like wrapping yourself in a 'marshmallow steamer.' Even with air conditioning, the 'microclimate' under the blanket remains uncontrollable, making night sweats and overheating a common nightmare.
▲ Source: Bedding review site Naplab
Thus, 'smart temperature-regulating bedding' became big business. Americans are willing to spend thousands of dollars just for a good night's sleep.
In this trend, the hottest product is Eight Sleep. It's touted as 'the world's smartest mattress,' with 97% of its revenue coming from the U.S. The Pod series has already generated $500 million in hardware sales, with $75 million (540 million RMB) in online sales in 2024 alone.
Even more astonishing is its user base: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, F1 drivers, McLaren's CEO… In the U.S. tech and sports circles, Eight Sleep has become a status symbol, akin to Peloton bikes or Oura rings.
So, what makes it so special?
The Pod mattress consists of three main components: foam mattress + ActiveGrid water-cooling mattress cover + Hub controller.
▲ Mattress, cover, and control base
The mattress cover acts as a 'scribe' of sleep data and a 'temperature executor.'
It has 35 non-contact sensors that capture real-time bedroom temperature, humidity, and weather data. By detecting subtle vibrations from blood flow and breathing, it 'guesses' your heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep stages, snoring, and tossing frequency.
The 'brain' behind temperature control is Eight Sleep's proprietary 'Autopilot system.'
It uses AI to simulate sleep stages and adjusts the mattress temperature accordingly—cooling during deep sleep and warming during REM, with independent temperature control for each side.
Reviews show its response time is absurdly fast: 0.2 seconds to cool, four times faster than the industry average. One reviewer exclaimed, 'This is the coolest mattress we've ever tested.'
The next morning, your phone receives a sleep report, such as, 'You had 12 minutes less deep sleep last night. We recommend going to bed 20 minutes earlier and lowering the temperature by 1°C.'
These insights come from AI modeling 200 billion sleep data points. It also integrates with Apple Health and Google Fit, dynamically adjusting sleep plans based on seasonal routines, stress levels, and training intensity.
On the business side, Eight Sleep understands consumers: the mattress starts at $2,649, but it offers financing—just $3 a day, the price of a coffee, for a full day of alertness and focus.
02 From 'Sleep Tech' to 'Medical-Grade Device'
Of course, the story of 'just a cooling smart mattress' isn't enough for Sequoia to invest $100 million.
The global smart mattress market is small—about $22.8 billion out of a $500 billion total mattress market.
What Sequoia sees is a bigger opportunity: using AI to enter the sleep health sector.
According to the U.S. CDC, over one-third of adults regularly lack sufficient sleep. Sleep tech adoption is rising—37% of Americans used sleep trackers in 2022, spending $147 per person on devices and $40 on apps.
Market projections are even more telling: by 2032, sleep tech will grow from $15 billion in 2022 to $95 billion. This is a massive market, and Sequoia clearly sees the trend.
This is also why Oura raised $200 million last year. It started as a sleep-tracking ring but quickly expanded into medical applications. The founder admitted that sleep needs helped them find a 'sweet spot' in their customer base, such as glucose monitoring. Eight Sleep is following the same path.
With the $100 million funding, Eight Sleep plans to do two things:
① Open physical stores, moving from online-only to offline, letting customers try before they buy;
② Enter hospitals/insurance—it's applying for FDA medical device certification. Once approved, buying it could be like buying a glucose monitor or CPAP machine: pay upfront, then claim insurance.
The latter is the real game-changer.
With 'medical-grade' certification, Eight Sleep could evolve from consumer electronics to 'semi-medical equipment.'
This means it’s no longer a 'luxury item' but a potential medical necessity recommended by doctors and covered by insurance. The consumer barrier drops significantly, expanding the user base from tech enthusiasts to doctors, teachers, and office workers.
More importantly, it’s no longer selling just 'comfort' but value tied to health—even longevity. This elevates pricing power and user retention to new heights.
To support these ambitions, Eight Sleep is doubling down on tech.
It’s launching SleepAgent, a generative AI system that creates 'digital twins' to simulate different sleep scenarios and identify the best path. Future plans include linking Autopilot with smart home devices—lights, AC, coffee makers—for full-scene automation.
(About 'digital twins': Traditional recommenders use 'similar user' data; digital twins simulate parallel worlds of sleep scenarios—temperature, schedule adjustments—then execute the optimal path for personalized results.)
On the medical front, Eight Sleep will introduce HealthCheck, a non-wearable health monitoring system with 99% accuracy for cardiovascular and respiratory tracking.
Looking back, whether it’s Eight Sleep now or Oura before, they reveal a truth: AI is opening a new commercial path for smart hardware.
In the past, hardware was a one-time sale. Now, AI gives it 'learning' and 'evolution' capabilities—like Eight Sleep transforming from a mattress to a medical aid, or Oura expanding from a ring to glucose monitoring and clinical health management.
This means hardware is no longer just a product but a service gateway that continuously upgrades and delivers value. With AI and hardware combined, the real business potential is just beginning.